Workforce Analysis: What It Means for Employers

What it means in practice

Workforce analysis answers practical questions: how many people work here, in which jobs, at what pay, with what skills, and how that is changing. The phrase is used in three settings: workforce planning, which matches staff to future needs; equal employment compliance, where it was a defined federal contractor report; and comparison with the wider labor market. This entry covers each and which federal rules still apply in 2026.

What gets measured. A basic analysis starts with headcount and full-time equivalents (FTE), broken down by department, job title, pay band, location and full-time or part-time status. Movement can use the Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS terms: job openings are positions open on the last business day of the month; hires are all additions to the payroll during the month; separations split into quits (employees who left voluntarily), layoffs and discharges (involuntary separations initiated by the employer) and other separations such as retirements, transfers, deaths and disability. Skills analysis compares the competencies the work needs with those staff have.

Workforce planning in the federal model. The most detailed federal framework applies to executive agencies, not private employers, but many HR teams borrow from it. OPM's Human Capital Framework rules require agency human capital programs to "be based on comprehensive workforce planning and analysis" and to address skill gaps in mission-critical occupations "by using comprehensive data analytic methods and gap closure strategies" (5 CFR 250.204(a)). A skill gap is a variance between the current and projected workforce size and skills needed (5 CFR 250.202). OPM's talent management guidance describes gap analysis as identifying the difference between the competencies and skills needed and those employees have, closed through training, hiring or both.

The 2026 OPM change. A final rule published October 29, 2026 and effective November 30, 2026 replaces agencies' Human Capital Operating Plans with Annual Staffing Plans. Each plan must include metrics and criteria for evaluating current and future staffing needs; target hiring to address skills gaps, enable succession planning and place new appointments in the highest-need areas; and consider efficiencies such as removing unnecessary management layers and redistributing workload across positions with similar duties. See succession planning.

The former federal contractor "workforce analysis." Under Executive Order 11246, 41 CFR part 60-2 required a written affirmative action program with six quantitative analyses: an organizational profile, a job group analysis, placement of incumbents in job groups, availability, a comparison of incumbency to availability, and placement goals (60-2.10). The organizational profile, "a depiction of the staffing pattern within an establishment," had to be either an organizational display or a workforce analysis (60-2.11). A workforce analysis listed every job title from payroll records or bargaining agreements, ranked from lowest to highest paid within each department, showing for each title the incumbents by sex and four named race and ethnic groups and the wage rate or salary range. The job group analysis then combined titles with similar content, wage rates and opportunities (60-2.12).

Current status of those rules. Executive Order 14173, signed January 21, 2025, revoked Executive Order 11246, allowed contractors to follow the prior rules for 90 days, and told OFCCP to immediately stop holding contractors responsible for "affirmative action" and stop allowing or encouraging "workforce balancing" based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion or national origin. OFCCP says Executive Order 11246 enforcement has ceased and pending compliance reviews were closed. The Labor Department's rule rescinding parts 60-1 and 60-2 took effect October 26, 2026, and the eCFR no longer contains part 60-2. No federal regulation now requires a contractor's race and sex organizational profile or utilization analysis. See affirmative action.

What contractor analyses remain: VEVRAA. OFCCP states that Section 503 and VEVRAA and their regulations remain in effect, although the affirmative action program certification period "will remain closed." Contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $200,000 or more keep a VEVRAA program, updated annually (41 CFR 60-300.40). Each year they document five figures: applicants who self-identified as, or are otherwise known to be, protected veterans; total job openings and jobs filled; total applicants; protected veteran applicants hired; and total applicants hired (60-300.44(k)). These feed the yearly outreach assessment, which uses the current and two prior years of data (60-300.44(f)(3)), and the annual hiring benchmark: OFCCP's national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force or a figure built from five listed factors. The regulation says quotas are expressly forbidden (60-300.45).

What contractor analyses remain: Section 503. Contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $50,000 or more still keep a written Section 503 program (41 CFR 60-741.40). A rule effective September 21, 2026 removed the disability self-identification invitation, the related data collection at 60-741.44(k) and the 7 percent utilization goal and analysis at 60-741.45, now reserved. New paragraph 60-741.44(l) says contractors need not consider quantitative data on referrals, applicants or hires with disabilities when assessing outreach. The annual outreach review (60-741.44(f)(3)) and an audit and reporting system measuring the program's effectiveness (60-741.44(h)) remain.

EEO-1 workforce data. The regulation still says every employer subject to Title VII with 100 or more employees files the EEO-1 each year and keeps a copy of the most recent report (29 CFR 1602.7). The EEOC describes Component 1 as workforce data by job category, sex and race or ethnicity, also filed by federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting certain criteria. As checked November 9, 2026, the EEOC page says the 2024 collection is closed and updates on the 2025 collection will be posted. On July 23, 2026 the EEOC proposed rescinding the EEO-1 through EEO-6 reports and related recordkeeping; comments closed August 24, 2026. A proposal does not change the current rule.

Analysing selection outcomes. Workforce analysis often turns into analysis of decisions: who was hired, promoted or let go. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures say users should keep records of impact by sex and by race and ethnic group, with safeguards so those records are used for appropriate purposes such as determining adverse impact (29 CFR 1607.4(A)-(B)). Under the four-fifths rule, a selection rate below 80 percent of the highest group's rate is general evidence of adverse impact, with caveats for small numbers (1607.4(D)). Users with 100 or fewer employees may keep simplified yearly records of hires, promotions, terminations, applicants and procedures used (1607.15(A)(1)).

Labor market comparison: three BLS sources. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) counts establishments, employment and wages reported by employers covering more than 95 percent of U.S. jobs, by county, state and nation and by detailed NAICS industry, mainly from state unemployment insurance reports; it excludes proprietors and the unincorporated self-employed. Its August 28, 2026 release covers the first quarter of 2026. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) gives employment and wages for about 830 occupations by nation, state and metropolitan area, most recently for May 2025. OEWS wages exclude overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and benefits, and BLS does not encourage using OEWS as a time series because each set pools six semiannual panels. JOLTS gives monthly national and state openings, hires and separations.

How JOLTS rates are calculated. BLS divides hires, or separations, by employment and multiplies by 100. The job openings rate divides openings by employment plus job openings. For September 2026 (preliminary, released November 3, 2026), BLS reported a job openings rate of 4.5 percent, hires 3.4 percent, total separations 3.3 percent, quits 2.1 percent and layoffs and discharges 1.0 percent.

Where states differ: California. Some states collect workforce data directly. Under California Government Code section 12999, private employers with 100 or more payroll employees, at least one in California, file an annual pay data report with the Civil Rights Department, with a separate report for 100 or more labor contractor employees. The Department's Reporting Year 2025 FAQ says employers group California employees by race and ethnicity, sex, job category, pay band, exemption status and employment type for each establishment. Reports are due the second Wednesday of May; the Reporting Year 2025 deadline was May 13, 2026. Other states differ; check the state civil rights agency.

Recordkeeping. VEVRAA data collection analyses and hiring benchmark records are kept three years (60-300.44(k), 60-300.45(c)). Other contractor personnel records, including applications, tests and records on hiring, promotion, termination and pay, are kept two years, or one year for contractors with fewer than 150 employees or without a contract of at least $200,000 (60-300.80(a)). The most recent EEO-1 report is kept at each reporting unit or headquarters (29 CFR 1602.7).

Questions employers ask. Must a private employer do a workforce analysis? No federal rule reviewed here requires a general one outside the specific reports above. Is the EEO-1 still required? The regulation stands while the July 2026 rescission proposal is pending. Which BLS source fits pay comparisons? OEWS for occupational wages by area; QCEW for industry employment and pay by county; JOLTS for turnover rates.

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